CSULB Ranks 6th Nationally in Awarding Minority Degrees

Published: July 15, 2010

CSULB has been ranked sixth in the nation in conferring bachelor’s degrees on minority students.

Diverse Issues in Higher Education recently released its annual list of the “Top 100 Degree Producers,” a list of the best minority degree-awarding institutions of higher education in the United States. It is the only national report that showcases U.S. colleges’ and universities’ success in awarding degrees to African-American, Latino, Asian-American and Native-American students.

CSULB’s overall ranking was based on U.S. Department of Education data from the 2008-09 academic year (the most current data available), and the top 100 rankings were published in the magazine’s June issue.

The university awarded undergraduate degrees to more than 3,305 minority students, who made up nearly 50 percent of CSULB’s 2009 graduating class.

“Cal State Long Beach is located in one of the most ethnically diverse regions of the United States, and our graduating class reflects the uniqueness of the student populations that we serve,” said CSULB President F. King Alexander. “This campus has made a concerted effort for years to reach out to all K-12 students and their parents in this community to encourage collegiate enrollment, and even more importantly, student success through graduating. This magazine’s ranking once again confirms our success and progress.”

The Diverse “Top 100” is the only national analysis to use the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. Using these statistics, rankings were created in the total number of baccalaureate degrees awarded at every university and college in the nation by ethnicity as well as specific figures in major fields of study and disciplines.

Among individual ethnicities, CSULB ranked fifth nationally in awarding degrees to Native-American students, 10th in awarding degrees to Hispanic students and 12th in awarding degrees to Asian-American students. The university also finished among the top 100 in awarding degrees to African-American students, placing 96th.

In fact, the campus’ number of graduating Native-American students jumped significantly from the previous year, increasing from 44 in 2007-08 to 181 in 2008-09, an increase of more than 300 percent.

With that, CSULB was ranked among the top 10 nationally in graduating Native-American students in a number of different disciplines, including first in English language and literature, second in psychology, third in engineering, sixth in the social sciences and history, seventh in the biological and biomedical sciences, and ninth in the health professions and related clinical sciences major.

CSULB also ranked in the top 10 overall nationally in the total number of minority bachelor’s degrees within two specific fields of study in the survey. The campus was first in the nation in awarding degrees to minority students in the English languages and literature major, and it ranked fourth nationally in conferring degrees in the health professions and related clinical sciences major on students of color.

Additionally, the university finished among the top 20 in the total number of minority bachelor’s degrees awarded in five other disciplines, including ethnic, cultural and gender studies (11th); business management and marketing (12th); psychology (16th), social sciences and history (18th); and engineering (19th).

The campus earned several other top 10 rankings by ethnicity and academic discipline, including:

— No. 3 in awarding English language and literature degrees to Hispanic students